St. Paul daily globe., 1887-10-22
SAM sLICK'S LETTER.
An Interesting Communication
From Sam Slick, Il Dakota Boy.

noticed the other day an invitation
extended TO the travelling men to send
letters to the ST. Paul daily GLOBE, and
it has several times suggested itself to
my mind, and l will offer my mite and
take the chances of its finding the waste
basket.
l am travelling mostly through North
ern Dakota and have watched the mar
velouS development of this great couH-
try to which st. Paul and Minneapolis
owe so much of their phenomenal
growth, and as l see these marvellous
prairieS, once so bare of anything but
prairie grass and wild flowers, now so
largely Subdued by the hand of man
and made to yield their beautiful har
vest, and everywhere fine buildings and
comfortable dwellings, indicating pros
porous homes, it seems like a realiZa-
ton of some Munchausen tale, even
though it has taken place under my very
eyes in the last ten years.
Progress is not confined to the mere
cultivation and development of lands,
however. | have noticed with interest
the popular growth of a sentiment, the
which many view with alarm.
especially those whose business interests
seem to be likely to be affected. | refer
to the question of prohibition. The boys
on the road are not, as a class, much
alarmed at the prospect of going with
out their drinks, as the Northwestern
travelling men are a temperate set. with
few exceptions, much different state
of things than used to be the case ten
years ago. Not that the old gang of
fellows were not as a class every inch
business men, but no class of men are so
compelled, by the nature of their buSi-
ness, to conform to the habits and Gus
toms of the people they meet as they,
and the change in this particular l take
1t to be more due to a change in the peo-
pie than change in the character of the
travelling men, although L think | voice
the sentiment of the boys when l say
that the change is welcome one.
The Old-timerS need not be told of the
pleasures ~ of catching the wary order
in old days when poor hotels and
long tedious, and often perilOus.
team trips, were the rule and
not the exception as now, and
the broad mantle of charity should be
thrown over the boys who used to par
ticipate in some Of the high old times
when chance threw a lot of those old
pioneers together in some of the very
few good towns supplied with good
hotel and warm CHEEKY hOStelries after
week or two severe butfeting with a
Dakota winter over prairie roads or an
exc lrSiOn to lot of little side track
the best room in the house contained |
ten to twelve beds, and all supplied |
with many an occupant who insisted on |
being Sociable and who tended to buSi- |
ness Just the same, even with the ther- !
mOmeter 20o to 400 below zero. We |
old timers. | say, welcome the change, |
both in improved hotels and railroad f. |
cilities and the improved moral tone S |
well.
Tho +bouub+ oomac to ,c what will + |
be for us at hotels in the near future
when the social bar room shall
be done away with, as it is bound to be
in another ten years, [ think, and per-
hapS sooner? Allow me to prophesy,
the inevitable law of supply and de-
mand will supply the want as surely as
the same immutable law works out the
results in everything else. The boys
are a SOciabe
BRIGHT. JOLLY SET,
and, in fact, need not the aid of arti-
ficial Stimulent to make them bright
and agreeable. No set of men stand i'm
less need of it than they. So say the
time is near at hand when hotels will
vie with each other in supplying room
spacious and pleasant, stocked with
good library papers, periodicals, billiard
tables, piano and good folloS of music,
and in fact, all the accessories of first
class club room minus the bar and We
croakers. Don't tell me the boys won't
hail the advent with delight. A few of
our readers may imagine that the boys
won't know how to have good time
without the auxiliary of rum. Let me
tell you of an ideal evening spent by
church crowd of the boys at Alexandria.
We met one beautiful August day at
the good little hotel run by J.H. Letson,
of Alexandria. After tea the most of US
had finished our business and
until the night trains came,
were ready for anything that
turned up. We proposed a trip over to
Geneva lake and 10 sooner said than
ten of us were on the way in the rig
supplied by the house at nominal rate,
and short drive of three miles brought
us to the beautiful lake and the other
hotel run by this same worthy landlord.
and then we quickly dispersed into the
boats, and a row over the beautiful
sheet Of water was the next thing in OF
der, and the contests Of speed and the
bursts of merry song were good to look
upon and hear. The sun set i'm
glory and the stars came twinkling out.
and with light hearts and exhilarated
feelings we again took the conveyance
back to the hotel over the pretty, wooded
road, and found the rest of the BOYS
there, and adjourned to the parlor for
some music. As the little party of
Twelve or n1teen numbered some hrSt-
rate voices and a few fair pianists, an
hour was delightfully."- spent, and then
an hour more on the piazza over good
cigars, many good story and pleasing
incident was related, ,andunder that beau
tiful summer moon many jolly laugh
rang out and at a SeaSonabIe hour the
party broke up, and l will venture to
say no man but felt himself better
man for the enjoyment and the next
days tasks many times lighter as the
thought of the evening came to mind,
and l venture to say no man of the
party but was pleased to tell wife,
mother. sister or sweetheart of it. and
no liquor was spoken of even during
the entire evening, and it was just such
a party as meets often in these little
towns, and if the facilities were better
for the enjoyment of purely social
evenings the boys would meet every
movement in this direction gladly and
support it heart and hand. No class of
men are better fitted in their warm
hearted, jovial way to adorn the home
circle or society than they, and yet from
the nature of their wandering life the
few brief hours spent with wife. home,
friends or SWeetheartS are SO few and
far between that their strong social
tendencies are likely to lead them
astray, and makes it more essential that
we as class shall foster this higher
social tendency and lose no opportunity
to forward its growth every day.
SAM SLICK.